Wave uses film to focus on Sparks

It’s the most film they’ve watched of a game all season.

“We sat down on Monday, watched film and really looked at that game at against Elko,” Fallon football coach Brooke Hill said. “It’s probably more than any team we watched. We watched every down and things we need to fix.”

Examining what went right and wrong in a 24-18 triple-overtime loss in Elko, Hill feels his team is more aware of what needs to be done to stay in the win column for the rest of the year. Fallon (3-3) travels to Sparks (1-5) tonight for a 7 p.m. clash with the Railroaders before returning home to close out the season with Spring Creek and Lowry.

“Our discussion was that we respect Sparks, and Sparks will be a challenge,” Hill said. “The problems we’re having are us. We need to fix those things.”

Only two of Sparks’ six games have been decided by 10 points or less, including a 20-10 win over Dayton. The Railroaders, though, like Fallon, forced overtime against Elko before losing on the road.

“They’re a good football team,” Hill said of Sparks. “We still feel like we need to take care of us. We came out (Tuesday) and had a good offensive practice and we had a good defensive one (Wednesday). We learned some things about ourselves and that was good.”

Sparks is a run-first team with four Railroaders rushing over the century mark. Senior Hunter O’Meara leads the team with 616 yards on 93 carries (6.6 average) in only four games but three of those carries were 100 yards.

Senior Nick Van Patten and juniors Kaige Lewis and Cody McAbee have shared snaps under center with McAbee leading the team with 13 of 40 for 112 yards and one touchdown. He’s also thrown eight interceptions.

“They’ve got some athletes,” Hill said of Sparks. “They’ve got some size like they normally do. They’ve got pretty good depth. Coach (Rob) Kittrell has been there awhile and does a good job with those guys. They’ve been competitive this year.”

Before the Elko loss, Fallon was clicking on all three phases, beginning with outscoring South Tahoe 30-6 in the fourth quarter and then posting a solid shutout over winless Dayton. While the defense played one of its better games, allowing one touchdown in regulation, the offense was inconsistent and the special teams couldn’t convert PATs and allowed a game-tying kick return that forced overtime.

It’s nothing new, though, for the Greenwave.

“To really say ‘hey, if we do this the correct way in the game,’ that one close play can make a big difference,” Hill said. “We’re not going to be perfect and we know that. We’ve got to be consistent. We didn’t make enough plays. I think they understood that after Monday.”

Hill wants nothing more to see his team just simply execute against Sparks and the rest will take care of itself.

“We scaled some things back a little bit, especially on the offensive side,” Hill said. “Part of that is injuries and on the defensive side, too. We need to execute the base stuff at a higher level. If we can do that and believe in those schemes, we’re going to be a better football team. We’ve got to get back to the basics of doing things right.